Travel

Flights to China are served by Air China (CA) (www.air-china ). Autumn, when tourist numbers are down but the weather in many regions remains pleasant, is a good time to find flights. Fares can be higher in and around peak holiday seasons such as Chinese New Year.

Flight times:

From London to Beijing is approximately 10 hours and from Los Angeles is 12 hours 30 minutes.

International services run from Beijing to Moscow on both the Trans-Mongolian Railway (via Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia) and the Trans-Manchurian Railway (via northeastern China). The Trans-Siberian route runs from Moscow to Vladivostock, and from here you can also cross into China, although the other two routes are more direct. Non-stop, the journey by train takes around 1 week. Allow more time if coming from London or other locations in Western Europe. Train timetables can be found at Man at Seat 61 (www.seat61 ).

From Vietnam to China it is possible to take a train which travels from Hanoi to Beijing. There is also a daily overnight train service between Hanoi and Nanning, in Guangxi province, which began in 2015. A second cross-border service, between Kunming and Hanoi, is now closed.

There are also four weekly services from Beijing to Pyongyang in North Korea. Owing to demand, it may be necessary to book up to two months in advance. A regular train service runs from Hong Kong to Guangzhou (Canton). There are several trains daily.

In Hong Kong, MTR (tel: 2688 1333; www.mtr.hk ) has express trains servicing Kowloon to Guangzhou. There are also services between Shanghai-Kowloon/Hong Kong (journey time 19 hours) and Beijing-Kowloon/Hong Kong (journey time 24 hours). Further information on rail services is available from the Chinese Ministry of Transport (www.moc.gov.cn. in Chinese only).

Note: Travellers on the Trans-Mongolian or Trans-Manchurian Railways are strongly advised to search their compartments and lock the doors before departure, owing to an increase in smuggling via this route.